Wall Street Maintains Buy Ratings on Crypto Firms as They Pivot to AI, Financial Infrastructure
Summary
- Major Wall Street brokerages maintained buy ratings on Bitdeer, DeFi Technologies, Strive and Gemini.
- Benchmark and Mizuho said the companies are shifting their businesses toward AI infrastructure and digital financial platforms.
- TD Cowen highlighted Strive’s new preferred-share structure and its potential effect on Bitcoin (BTC) accumulation, while Mizuho focused on Gemini’s expanding base of structurally stable revenue streams.
Forecast Trend Report by Period
Wall Street brokerages are arguing that crypto companies should no longer be viewed simply as trading platforms, but increasingly as artificial intelligence and financial infrastructure plays.
Crypto-focused media outlet The Block reported on May 19 that Benchmark, TD Cowen and Mizuho maintained buy ratings on Bitdeer, DeFi Technologies, Strive and Gemini.
The firms said the market still values these companies largely as transaction-driven businesses, even as their business models shift rapidly toward AI infrastructure, capital markets and digital financial platforms.
Benchmark highlighted Bitdeer’s roughly 3-gigawatt global power infrastructure footprint. Its power assets in the US, Norway, Bhutan and Ethiopia could become more valuable as demand for AI data centers rises.
The brokerage also pointed to Bitdeer’s Tydal facility in Norway. The site is targeting demand for data centers built on Nvidia’s AI architecture, and lease negotiations are under way with an investment-grade company, the report said.
DeFi Technologies drew attention for its strategy of building its own custody infrastructure. The company sees custody as a core part of the infrastructure needed as tokenization of real-world assets, or RWAs, and stablecoin issuance expand.
TD Cowen was positive on Strive’s new preferred-share structure. Strive plans to introduce a structure that pays daily dividends, which TD Cowen said could broaden its investor base and speed up its Bitcoin accumulation.
Mizuho said Gemini is expanding beyond a spot exchange into payments, credit cards, prediction markets and clearing infrastructure.
The brokerage also highlighted Gemini’s first-quarter trading revenue, which was nearly unchanged even though trading volume fell by more than 50%. That suggests the company is becoming less dependent on spot trading and increasing its share of structurally more stable revenue streams.
Mizuho added that Gemini is also building a structure that can support AI-driven automated trading and a larger share of API-based order flow.
